Does this sound familiar – you are quitting again but as withdrawal starts kicking in, the thought comes to your mind “Why am I doing this?”. If you made the list you start going through it eliminating one reason after another.
You probably had the same reasons to quit as I: health, money and people in your life begging you to stop this habit.
First withdrawal symptoms make these reasons seem so insignificant and inapplicable to me. You already know the result but still you start the debate.
I didn’t feel that bad, so health didn’t feel that important of a motive. Sure I regularly had flue or bronchitis and was out of breath easily, but it might have all been due to desk job and diet.
Money as a motive also got destroyed quickly. Vaping did cost me as much as owning a car but it’s my money and if I choose to smoke- it’s my right. Somehow this became about freedom and independence.
This kind of thinking nicely worked to eliminate the last reason. My partner didn’t want me to smoke but I reasoned that they knew what they were getting into. It’s not about me choosing smoking over loved ones. It’s about them not accepting who I was… as if e-cigarette was a part of “who I am”.
Nicotine addiction is a tricky thing and the one fooling you is yourself. The moment you ask yourself “why should I quit” is the moment you have mentally given up.
Health, money and loved ones are very important reasons but unfortunately when the addiction starts asking to feed it they seem not that important. For full disclose I “quit” I think 5 or 7 times and every time the moment I asked that question I knew that it won’t last.
Make a list of reasons why you want to quit. You might even come up with a list of reasons why you need to quit.
Lists are good to keep you on track or to do checks but if you just write them down, these reasons will be only words. My problem was that on all those failed attempts I had reasons why I was quitting but as the nicotine starvation began it seemed like a fair trade off.
Many things are bad for you. I would ask myself why I should quit. At this time studies have yet to prove any real risk for health… I was trying to justify my smoking.
I was constantly on the look-out for stories that prove that e-cigarette is not that bad. I would read reports about some study that shows that e-cigarette is 95% less harmful than cigarette. Such stories were providing me with relief that I am not an idiot to continue puffing my life away.
I did it and you are probably doing it. That’s why the first step is to acknowledge that you are actively lying to yourself.
You are smoking because you believe that smoking has a positive function for you and that your smoking has a minimum (if any) impact on your future. You need to not only know but to actually understand the impact vaping has on your mental and physical health, that smoking doesn’t have any positive function to you.
Life is a lottery but you need to understand that every single time you use your e-cigarette is another ticket in your pile and the prize is a horrible disease.
Same goes for the positive functions. Most common misconception is that smoking helps you calm down. Understand that it is not – that vaping just calmed the craving that was caused by nicotine. Your smoking just feeds this circle of misery and nothing else. You are being controlled by your addiction.
You need to ask not “Why am I quitting?” but “Why am I vaping?”. Put the habit on the defensive.
Once you realize that smoking doesn’t have any positive function and actions you take now have a direct impact on the future – this will be the moment you quit your nicotine slavery for good.